Thursday, July 21, 2011

Water Transactions In Laredo

At Monday's city council meeting the issue of water dispensing came up, partly at the behest of the Safe Fracking Coalition. Councilman Alex Perez placed the item on the agenda because it's come to people's attention that those who purchase water from the city in large volumes are going out and selling it for a higher price. Whether it's being sold to drilling companies was not confirmed, but it was suggested.

City staff will look into curbing this activity.

"It's not going to be to the point that people can go get a tanker of water and then be able to resell it. If there's going to be any activity it's going to be a direct activity that's going to be monitored and we're going to be able to look after the interests of the City of Laredo."

The city also doesn't want any middle man involved. If drilling companies need water, they will have to buy it direct from the city.

LaredoTejastakes issue with the city's response to big tankers taking advantage of this service at one pumping station: shut down the operation. This will make it difficult for private citizens that depend on that water dispensing system. The LMT (Andrew Kreighbaum) reported today on this very thing.

The dispenser, which is located at Las Penitas and Las Tiendas roads, was set to be closed in mid-August. Instead, the city will move the dispenser to the Fred and Anita Bruni Community Center on West Racho Penitas Road.

So now it will be in the county's hands. I don't know if that's a good idea, seeing as how they've had some bad luck with keeping track of their water.

The city wants to monitor any activity where somebody might be making out like a bandit selling the city's water. If water is going to be sold to the oil and gas companies, they suggest using effluent water. Currently the country club and the existing golf course use this type of water for irrigation, according to the city manager. I hope better stewardship of our water is accomplished, but I'm not keeping my hopes up since the city can barely monitor the activity at Mami Chulas.

LaSanbe

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